12.7.09

Manchester Festival

While I've been glued to the live feed of the 4th Plinth, I've been missing the Manchester Festival, which looks like a lot of fun. Sadly, I've only seen bits of it thanks to The Culture Show on telly. Kraftwerk at the Velodrome was a masterstroke, tho the Olympic cyclists apparently nearly didn't have bikes! I really would have loved to have seen Jeremy Deller's Procession on 5 July, re-imagining the Whit Walks and carnivals of my youth with Stockport boy racers, a replica greasy spoon (Valerie's Cafe from Bury Market, which I'm embarrased to say I've never patronised), Peterloo descendants, unrepentant smokers and the Shree Swaminarayan Gadi Pipe Band from Bolton. Music played a big part, with horse-drawn hearses lamenting lost clubs: Hacienda, Wigan Casino (but no Twisted Wheel, as Terry Christian pointed out on the tv), and the parade ending with a steel band playing Joy Division's 'Love Will Tear Us Apart'. Wonder what he'd conjure up for a Brighton parade?